Right when top talent has become a prerequisite to success, talented executives have become rare indeed. There are a few key reasons for this:
- Demographics: A lower birth rate in North America combined with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation has resulted in a contraction of available executives. In other words, when an older executive retires, there are few younger workers who are qualified to fill their shoes.
- Brain drain: In the 1980s and 1990s, companies saved money by trimming senior management ranks. But that brain drain robbed them of their ability to grow the next generation of leadership.
- Globalization: Companies in first-world countries have expanded their market around the globe. At the same time, so-called third-world nations have become economic powerhouses. As a result, the global need for executive talent has been pushed beyond our capacity to produce it.
